The paradox of knowledge vs. action
From an interview with the CEO of Duke Energy, Mr. Rogers, on 60 minutes, it again became distressingly clear that some people are not able to “connect the dots”, as the US-based climatologist Jim Hansen calls it.
Even though Mr. Rogers admits that his company is one of the largest CO2 emitters of the states, that the US needs a federal law to limit CO2 emissions, and that we urgently need to act on climate change, he does not draw the immediate consequences for his own company from that.
His plans are to decarbonize coal-fired power plants by 2050, investing in “clean coal technology”. There are many problems with that goal. First of all, Mr. Rogers, as so many politicians and CEOs with big plans for the year 2050 will be dead by then. If and how such a goal will be accomplished is therefore not much in their own interest (which is amazing considering that those people do have children, I assume). We need short-term goals that are within the responsibility of the people in power today.
Also, according to Jim Hansen and others, decarbonizing coal-fired power plants by 2050 will be too late. The IPCC 2007 suggested that we need to peak CO2 emissions by about 2015. Unfortunately, most recent research indicates that the IPCC - and thus also its recommendations - are outdated, because global climate is changing faster than estimated.
Even though the CEO of Duke Energy seems clearly concerned, he clearly does not act upon it approriately. Even though he counts on clean coal being the savior of coal, his company has not yet invested a single penny into this technology. And even though this technology, as important as it will be to create carbon negative emissions from biomass, will likely be affordable and implemented too late to reduce CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants to avoid passing tipping points with irreversible consequences for all life on earth. Also, the price for applying CCS to each coal-fired power plant in the US is estimated to be in the range of a trillion dollars or more - not quite the pocket money that even nations generally carry around.
Why then keep investing in coal at all? Why do energy companies not invest much more heavily in renewable technologies? Why do CEOs that pretend to understand the problem, still do not see that the argument “..this is just not possible [to stop building new coal fired power plats]” is outdated?
If political leaders and CEOs of energy companies cannot connect the dots, then we - every single citizen of the world - just need to do so by switching to an electricity company that offers 100% renewable energy, and by investing our money primarily in renewable energies. We can change the world without having to wait for official orders. And we need to do so within the next decade.
Maiken Winter
Tags: Clean Coal, coal, Duge Energy, James Hansen, renewable energy
